August 17, 2019 5 min read 2 Comments
I cannot believe it’s been a whole year since we launched our business!
This time last year I was in floods of tears because there had been a powercut throughout our whole neighbourhood and we had zero access to the internet!
It sounds dramatic I know but we’d promised everyone we would be launching our website (which still wasn’t quite ready) and it felt like everything was going wrong before we’d even launched.
Luckily, after a few hours of panicking the power came back on and we launched our website as promised on 17th August 2018 😊.
Then came the waiting game - we didn’t know if we would sell anything and we all sat around wondering what to do with ourselves next. We were absolutely over the moon when an order (from the fabulous @toria_talks_beauty) came through just 10 minutes after the website went live!
We danced around the living room excitedly and immediately rushed to our newly established packing station to get our first ever order parcelled up.
Leo and me looking pleased as punch with our first batch of parcels to send out!
Since then, we have been absolutely overwhelmed with the amazing positive response from everybody in the skincare community on Instagram and beyond. We set up our business not knowing if anything would come of it and the events that have happened since were beyond our imagination!
Thank you to everyone who has supported, commented, liked, ordered and given feedback to us over the past year. We literally couldn’t have done it without you and we’re incredibly grateful for your support! 🙏
Our lovely yurt, Badger at Blackdown Yurts!
Last year, we spent two nights in a yurt when we attended the Creative Business Network's amazing Creatival – a fantastic festival in Exeter for creative business ventures. Tickets are still available for this year’s Creatival, we’d highly recommend it if you’re thinking of or have already started your own creative business.
Even though Leo (who had never been camping before) took some convincing to try the yurt out, by the end of our stay he had come full circle and absolutely loved it!
It was here that we met loads of inspiring business owners such as the fabulous Lauren Aston of Lauren Aston Designs and we made friends for life with the wonderful Lucy and Chris of Lucy and Yak. They've been such a rock for us over the past year and they inspire us every day to keep pushing the boundaries and build an ethical business to be proud of.
It was actually while we were in the yurt one evening that Urban Outfitters US contacted us and asked to stock our products on their website! We couldn’t believe our eyes and had to keep checking the email to see if it was real.
Us on the shelves at Riley Rose!
Not long afterwards, Riley Rose contacted us too and we couldn’t believe it when they said they wanted to stock us in all of their US stores!
We haven’t been able to get over to the US to see it for ourselves, but we get super excited every time we get tagged in a picture of us on the shelves! If you’re US based you can go and check us out in-store and try out our testers to see what you think! Here’s a link to the list of Riley Rose stores 😉
Our L.E.V8 Cohort!
In October 2018 we managed to get a place on the OXFO L.E.V8 accelerator programme at the Oxford Foundry, University of Oxford. Our business was one of 10 selected annually for the University’s accelerator programme.
We spent an incredible 6 months working alongside a group of amazing entrepreneurs from the other businesses. We met some incredible people and gained valuable advice for our business from a stellar team of advisors and mentors!
Thank you so much to the Oxford Foundry team for supporting us and encouraging us to take our business to the next level.
The ill-fated pallet getting loaded up for its 2 week holiday in Los Angeles!
I’m not going to lie and pretend it’s all been amazing – there have been some really tough times and lots of challenges to overcome. Running a business definitely has a big impact on your mental health and there have been times when I’ve been too depressed to get up, let alone deal with the big problems!
We’ve had trouble with suppliers being really slow, having a massive knock on effect on us having enough stock. Then there was a breakdown in communication and a whole pallet of stock got stuck at LAX for 2 weeks without us realising! Oh and while the Royal Mail have been awesome at getting the parcels out to everyone on time, there have been a couple of hiccups and it’s very difficult not to get upset on behalf of your customers when things go wrong.
Thankfully, we can reflect on everything that’s happened and realise that while it was tough, each and every problem has taught us how to be more resilient and how to solve it next time! We’ve learnt that we need to chase suppliers regularly, how to send a pallet to the US properly and that Italy’s postal service can only deliver a parcel if you send it via tracked shipping!!
The final design versions of Stay Lit!
So much has happened for WOW YOU in such a short space of time but we’re not stopping yet! Here are a few of our plans for the next few months and beyond:
We’re launching a celebratory birthday candle called Stay Lit with our signature best loved scent from Super Serum! I chose the name to represent that feeling of taking time for yourself when you’ve had a stressful period and it’s been difficult to take a break. We often carry on despite really needing to rest and recuperate and I wanted it to be a little reminder to take care of yourself so you can stay lit and ready for anything!
I wanted to launch them today to mark our anniversary, but it turns out that candles need to cure for a few weeks to develop a stronger scent 🙈 so instead we’ll launch them in the next couple of weeks 😊.
Ever wondered the reason behind our name and logo?
We want to use our platform for good and we’d like to put more emphasis on our skin positivity mission going forward. We chose our name and logo to represent that feeling of being able to say to yourself in the mirror “Wow, you look amazing!”. We want to help everyone feel good in their skin no matter what by championing skin positivity & self compassion and by featuring real skin on our website and feed.
We’re in the process of setting up an ambassador program, so if you’d like to get involved in spreading the skin positivity message, please keep a look out for updates on this in the coming months! 😉
Some of our upcoming mini versions!
We’ve been meaning to release mini versions of our products for ages and it’s just been one of those things that keeps getting delayed! We’re currently making the finishing touches to our mini sets which should be released in the next few weeks. Keep an eye out for the release email as we only have a small number of units in this first batch!
If you’ve read my ramblings this far, thank you! We can’t thank you all enough for all of the kindness you’ve all showed us over the past year, here’s to many more years to come! 🥂
Best wishes,
Ella 💕
August 18, 2019
I started using Wow You! A year ago ( so probably when you first came to instagram) and I was completely blown away from the first use!! I am a loyal customer forever!!!
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I absolutely love this cream. The quality far exceeds some of the luxury branded creams it gets compared with (I can think of 2 in particular) but for me the results are much better. I love the sheen that the natural nut oils give my skin and the hydration that lasts well over 24 hours. I’m keen to explore the hibiscus scent too which might be more versatile for cooler weather. A bigger size would definitely be helpful in the future if that could be an option! Well done for creating such a dreamy product range!!
Just gorgeous great results and body butter makes my skin feel great. Will buy again and for friends and family.
Love love love this moisturiser, makes my skin feel so soft and smells absolutely gorgeous..
What a great product
3 products that all smell amazing and they all work well
Fabulous stuff that smells absolutely divine. I bought the strawberries and cream shave trio and my daughter is now addicted to the cloud fluff! Won’t contemplate using anything else. Only problem is she uses it up too quickly. Will keep buying.
Super moistening products !
Wonderful products, super moisturising
Smells unbelievably good and feels so luxurious
Beautiful smelling, leaves skin so soft x
I have never smelt such a beautiful scent.
The body scrub leaves yours skin feel refreshed and you feeling well exfoliated and cleaner than
ever before .
The shaving cream is so soft leaving your skin after shaving feeling every bit hydrated.
And the body butter smells heavenly, leaves your skin feel so soft and hydrated and the smell last ages.
I can see why the brand is called WOW because that's the best word to sum up the these products.
I have ordered once and after this review will be ordering another rainbow shave trio.
I can highly recommend to anyone to buy this trio immediately,
I cannot express enough how much I love this rainbow range.
These products are so gentle and moisturising all other whipped soaps I’ve ever tried by other brands are so harsh and nasty and leave this awful plasticky waxy feel to your skin but this 🥹 wow I get to enjoy these Beautiful colourful products because they feel so amazing on my skin it’s truly magical the scent 😍 is so unique it’s soothing feels almost nostalgic it’s so relaxing I read a comment somewhere how the scent smells like Barbie’s and my little ponys I defo get that hence the nostalgia feel I get but it’s also just so soothing I get migraines and so I’m really sensitive to scents especially artificial nasty ones but this is so beautiful and doesn’t trigger my migraines all other products from other brands that I’ve tried feel and smell vile and are full of harsh cause migraines and diseases full of toxic chemicals and leaves a film over your skin it’s like it traps your skin imagine it chemicals trapped inside your skin being absorbed into your blood stream ewww no thanks not for me but these products however make your skin feel refreshed and like it can breathe it’s all natural gentle and vegan the body butter even makes my tattoos brighter the whipped soap makes shaving easier for me I have chronic illness so shaving is difficult but the shave butter / whipped soap oh my …. It makes it a million times easier and I don’t get any razor bumps it really protects your skin as you shave the razors I use a crappy but this product makes the crappiest of razors no problem !! It’s incredible how much of a difference the right products can make It’s so much more than just whipped soap, the gentle scrub 😍 is marvellous makes my skin so soft it’s the perfect way to get rid of dead skin cells and dead skin cells only and not the good skin underneath lol any other body scrub I’ve ever used from other brands scratches my actual skin off but this … I’m just so lost for words , words aren’t good enough you’re gonna have to just try it for yourself and experience it trust me you won’t regret it I’m just in awe at how much research and care the founder has put into their products it’s so rare to find a brand that actually considers the people who buy their products I’ve never had anything like any of these gorgeous luxurious products I’m so so so happy money well spent I’m supper pleased will only ever use this brand as it’s incomparable and just so good for me in many ways I love it
I can't live without this now, fabulous product
This Glow to Sleep night cream really does what it says! Nothing makes my skin look so good when I wake up as when I’ve used this. It’s been a game changer in my nighttime routine - I’m in my mid 40’s - and I absolutely love it!
I’ve been using the Slay cleanser for a few years now and love how it makes my skin feel - clean and soft, not squeaky! It’s great at removing makeup, and quick and easy - I just use a clean facecloth each time I wash my face.
I absolutely love this cleanser it feels so nice on my skin and smells amazing and dare I say it my skin is getting much clearer! This cleanser doesn’t dry out my skin like so many other products for acne skin do. I reached out to the company about a query I had regarding my order and they got back to me straight away. Think I will buy the bundle now!
Ella
August 18, 2019
Hi Mérida, thank you so much for your kind words and for all of your support so far! I’m really pleased to hear you’re enjoying our products lovely! Best wishes, Ella 💕